Levi's POV...

Charlotte thankfully returned the next afternoon like she said she would. One less thing for me to feel pessimistic about. Thanks to jake for pointing that out for me.

 Charlotte's smile instantly lights up my mood when I see her walk into the gym.  But her smile quickly fades slightly, and she looks worried for me. I think she's more worried to know if I behaved or not while she was away.

" I'm ok Charlotte, I was actually nicer than usual to everyone while you were gone," I try to amuse her.

"Oh, that's good to hear! I thought I'd come back to hear that you made Sarah cry again from your cruel antics," she chuckles.

"I would never do that," I smirk.

I'm relieved to see that we're still acting like our normal selves, bantering back and forth and laughing. I was worried things would be awkward between us.

" I should help you get packed since were leaving tomorrow," Charlotte reminds me.

She pushes me back to my room and quickly goes from one bureau to the next then to the bathroom collecting things I might need. She hasn't let me do anything, so I just sit on my bed and watch her run her fingers through her hair, looking around one more time to make sure she didn't forget anything.

 " Is this how stressful packing is supposed to be?" I tease her, and she hisses back at me.

"What's wrong Charlotte?"

"I'm nervous, that's all," she tells me.

I grab her wrist when she tries to walk past me. "Stop, you didn't forget anything, you packed everything I'm sure, now sit down and relax for a minute," I command her.

She sits down beside me then takes a deep breath in followed by a long sigh. "Sorry, I'm worried about not finding a dress when we get there," she says softly.

I can't help but start laughing, " That's what you're worried about? A dress?"

Charlotte scowls and hits me on the shoulder. " Not every girl is lucky enough to have their dress tailored to them by a famous designer," she snips at me.

"Charlotte, you'll look perfect in any dress," I try to convince her.

She gets up off the bed, looks through my bag one more time then tells me she has to go home and pack her things. This time things did feel awkward between us when we both pause and stare at each other, contemplating our next move. Charlotte acts first and decides to kiss my cheek and says she'll see me in the morning. Wow, I really screwed up that moment! I think to myself.

Nate brings his car around the back side of the building the next morning, hoping the photographers out front won't spot us when he drives us to the airport. Charlotte gives me a baseball cap to wear, hoping it will help hide my face. She attaches both leg braces on my legs but only locks the left one straight. I wish the cap would hide my face better because Charlotte catches me wince in pain and instinctively reach towards my left leg. Shit! What now?

I'm learning that my left side spasms become more frequent when I work those muscles too much or when I'm overly anxious. This morning I'm definitely anxious. How is she going to get all of our luggage and me around the airport? I know we're flying first class, but It's still going to be difficult for me to get onto the plane, and anyone who recognizes me will be snapping photos of it all.

"Hey, everything will be fine, remember?" She says to me as she unlocks my leg brace and starts moving my leg around, massaging my muscles, before locking my brace again.

Nate already has my wheelchair in the car so Charlotte drapes my left arm around her shoulder, wraps her arm around my waist and stands me up with her. I wince again and exhale when I stand causing her to look up at me with concern. "I'll be fine, let's try and walk it off," I reassure her, then grab my right crutch so we can walk to the car.

Logan Airport is crowded when we arrive. Nate checks in our bags curb side while Charlotte helps me out of the car and into my chair. I hang onto my crutch as Charlotte pushes me to the security check in. We get priority check in but since I'm in a wheelchair, security pulls me aside and searches every part of me and my chair like I'm a terrorist. It's completely embarrassing and attracting too much attention for my identity to go unnoticed by strangers claiming to be my fans.

"Let's just get to our gate," I groan at Charlotte who looks just as embarrassed for me.

Charlotte holds my left hand and pulls me to wheel next to her as we make our way to the gate. I don't want to make the boarding process more of a problem so I ask Charlotte if we can have the flight attendant check in my wheelchair and we can walk onto the plane together. She happily agrees with my suggestion and the flight attendant allows us to be the first ones to board.

Our six-hour flight to London flies by quickly. We both watched a few movies, listened to music and took a short nap.

My mate Andy picked us up when we landed and took us to my flat. " Andy's girlfriend Kate is going to bring you out dress shopping while I stay here with Andy," I inform Charlotte.

"What about your tux? When are you going to get that?" She asks me.

"Oh Mark already has my tux, he's bringing it over later," I tell her.

"Of course he is!" She says slightly annoyed.

The gala is being held at the Waldorf, so Mark had a car pick us up. When we arrive, Charlotte and I check into our adjoining rooms. I still need help with a lot, so I made sure our rooms are connected.

Charlotte helps me get into my tux and has me stand in front of her, holding onto her shoulders while she buttons my shirt. I'm not wearing my leg braces under my dress pants, so it takes me a few tries of trying to stand long enough for Charlotte to finish with my shirt.

When she reaches the top button, she pauses for a moment and looks up at me. " Have you seen or spoken to anyone here besides Mark," she quietly asks me.

"No, I'd rather wait for everyone to stare at me all at one time... get the humiliation over with in one shot," I try to joke with her, so she doesn't notice how much it bothers me. 

She reaches up and cups my face in her hands and says, "Levi, people only stare because they're afraid of what's different or unknown to them. And if that's all they want to do is stare, then stare back, make them feel uncomfortable. The ones who look at you just for a second are the ones who are fascinated with you... I mean, that's why I'm always staring at you," she smiles.

"You stare because you're fascinated with me?" I smirk at her.

" Of course I am!.... You were just balancing with only one hand on my shoulder and you didn't even realize it," she beams at me.

"Shit! I was!" I chuckle, a little too soon to celebrate as my left leg gives out and Charlotte quickly has her arms around my waist.

She finishes straightening out my tux and helps me into my chair before going to her room to put on her dress.

Women take so long to get ready, I complain to myself. But it's worth the wait because as soon as Charlotte walks back into my room wearing a long silky blue dress that accentuates every part of her perfectly toned body, my mouth nearly drops to the floor. I'm breathless, she's beautiful!

"So how do I look?" She asks with a high-pitched voice, clearly nervous.

"You look stunning!" I tell her. It's true, I don't want to look away. Maybe I'll just stare at her all night and won't worry about who's staring at me.

" Ready for this?" I ask her, holding out my left hand for her to grab.

" No I'm not ready for this," she says. " I'm not either," I laugh as we head out towards the gala.

We arrive at the vast room, large glass chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Every round table covered by a silky white cloth and decorated with gold silverware, and red and white roses for the centerpiece. A large dance floor situated under the balcony which holds the live orchestra band.

Charlotte gasps in awe, like she's never seen anything like this before. I squeeze her hand to try and ease her anxious thoughts. Welcome to my world. This really is my least favorite part of my job; An outdoor BBQ is more my style.

"Levi!" Mark yells from across the room. All eyes turn to look at me. The entire cast from my last movie is here along with their significant others, the director, producer and everyone else who's important. They're all looking at me like I was afraid they would. I feel Charlotte squeeze my hand because she knows how I'm feeling at this moment. So, I do what Charlotte suggested and make my way over to the people who didn't look at me like I was some alien and start up a conversation with them.

Turns out Charlotte was right. Mark, my producer and anyone who I was close to on the set treated me like I was me, they were curious and wanted to know how I was doing....and the others, well, I did my best to ignore them.

"Emma! Liam!" Someone shouts. I look over and see Emma and Liam walk through the door, arms linked together at the elbow. Of course, she's with fucking Liam!

Everyone sat at the round tables for dinner. Mark and his girlfriend sat with us, and he proceeded to inform everyone at our table about how wonderful Charlotte's rehab center is and all the stuff they have there for me. Charlotte looks uncomfortably shy when all attention is focused on her, so I reach under the table and put my hand on her leg letting her know she's doing fine.

Mark then changes the subject and starts talking about the movie and it's release date. All the lads engage in Mark's conversation. Thankfully some of my co-stars girlfriends include Charlotte in a different conversation, otherwise she would just be sitting there feeling totally out of place.

After dinner everyone starts dancing. Charlotte's standing near the bar getting another glass of wine, and I'm sitting alone at the table while everyone else hits the dance floor with their partner. A few songs later, I'm still alone watching everyone, and I feel myself getting jealous the more I watch them all, gliding along the floor, me stuck in this stupid chair. Emma making sure to look my way every so often trying to provoke me with her body draped around Liam. I don't know where Charlotte went, she isn't near the bar now and I need her here with me before I lose my mind.

Suddenly, I feel her face next to my ear, she's behind me, leans down and wraps her arms lightly around the front of my neck and whispers, " Will you have this dance with me?"

Before I can answer, she moves in front of me and grabs both of my hands, pulling my wheelchair with her towards the dance floor.

"What are you doing?" I growl at her.

"I don't want to dance in my chair, it looks ridiculous," I tell her.

"You're going to stand and dance with me," she says.

I pull my hands away from her and cross my arms when we stop at the edge of the dance floor and frown at her. "I can't, I'll fall in front of everyone, I'm not wearing my braces," I angrily whisper to her. Does she want to embarrass me?

She leans down and takes my arms and wraps them around the back of her neck then looks straight into my eyes and asks, " Do you trust me?"

 "Yes of course I do but..."

"Then dance with me! We got this," she tells me.

My arms are tight around the back of her neck and her arms are tightly around my lower back as she stands me up. I hear a few loud gasps and look up to see that all eyes are on me. Great!

" Everyone's staring at us," I inform Charlotte.

"Let them stare," she says back.

We're still holding onto each other in a tight embrace. " Step when I step," she instructs me until we've made it a couple steps, or more like dragged my left foot a few feet onto the dance floor. She tightens her grip around my waist then takes my left arm off from her neck and brings it down so she can hold my hand in hers. My right arm holds tighter to the back of her shoulder until we're wrapped around each other carefully swaying our hips side to side.

"See we're dancing," she says softly and smiles up at me.

I don't say anything, I just see everyone looking at me, and picture myself falling.

"Just Breathe," Charlotte whispers to me when she notices I'm holding my breath and beginning to shake a little.

"Levi, don't look at them, only focus on me," she says softly and holds me tighter.  I do as she says and keep my eyes locked on hers. She's looking up at me like I'm the most important person in the world and that makes me want to instantly melt in her arms.

We are in a dancing hold, and we're very slightly moving side to side, so I wouldn't call this dancing, but it's close enough. I put all of my focus on Charlotte, forget about everyone else in the room and lean my head down to softly plant a small kiss on her neck then bury my face in her hair as we dance. "You have no Idea what you do to me Charlotte," I say so low into her hair, I'm not sure if she can hear me.

Halfway through the second song I feel my legs start to shake. "Charlotte!" I frantically murmur. She senses my worry and sits me back down into my chair. All eyes focused on me again like they're waiting for something bad to happen. Charlotte presses her hand on my cheek and moves my face so I can only see her. "Let's go back to the room," she leans down and speaks into my ear.

She squeezes my hand and leads us back to my room.

"I'm going to find you something to change into," she says as she darts for my suitcase. When she starts to walk past me, I grab her arm and pull her down onto my lap, hold her face in my palm and crash my lips onto hers.

At first, she hesitates, but I press my lips harder to hers and she gives in, her lips taste sweet, and she caresses her tongue with mine. I brush my lips across her jawline then down to the base of her neck. I want her so badly it hurts.

She lifts my head and her mouth catches mine again until she pulls away to catch her breath. When her hazel eyes meet mine, I can't look away.

She starts unbuttoning my shirt then gets off my lap and pushes me back towards the bed. I wrap my arms around the back of her neck so I can stand and she quickly detaches my belt and tugs my pants down to the floor before she transfers me to the bed. I sit down on the bed and pull her close so she's standing between my legs and I unzip the back of her dress, letting it slowly slide off, revealing her perfect little body.

Damn she's so hot, standing so close to me wearing only her black lace panties! She's seen me fully exposed before, but this is the first time I've seen her. Her flawless skin, her smooth flat stomach, the perfect shape of her small breasts.

I drag myself up onto the bed, so my back is leaning up against the headboard and watch her slowly climb up on top of me, straddling her legs over mine. My right hand steadies myself up, while my other hand lightly grabs the back of her neck and trying to  pull her closer to me to kiss her. The way her lips feel as she kisses me back, arouses a feeling deep inside me, making my need for her undeniable.

She pushes me back to lean against the headboard again, then leans her body into mine and slowly nips at my ear then softly kisses my neck. A shiver runs through my whole body as she moves her lips down to my collarbone. My whole body starts shaking like when I'm having muscle spasms in my arms and legs, but it feels so different. How she moves her tongue around my nipples and nips at them causes my legs to tremor even more. I'm a little worried and embarrassed that my body is reacting in this way. My spasms are pure pleasure this time though and not pain. I've read something about this, that the areas above a spinal cord injury become more sensitive. Fuck! They were right.

Charlotte pulls away for a moment when she feels how much I'm shaking. "Are you okay?" She asks. "Yes, I'm more than okay, please don't stop," I tell her. I caress her back with my fingers while she grazes hers down my stomach and stops just above my boxers. My paranoia takes over when she plants kisses all around my navel while her fingers slide under my waistband. As soon I gained control over my bladder and bowels, you bet your ass I made sure my manhood would be able to perform as well. But now, I'm under pressure and I don't want my dick to ruin the moment if it decides not to cooperate.

I grab her hand before she pulls my briefs down.
"Charlotte, what if I can't ..... you know," I say to her, my voice cracking.

She puts her finger on my lips, preventing me from saying any more then presses her mouth onto my right nipple and flicks her tongue while her hand slides into my boxers at the same time. What she's doing with her tongue alone is making me crazy, but when I feel her firmly cup my balls in her hand, I almost lose control. "Holy shit!" I moan out loud. Charlotte looks up and smiles at me and then takes me into her mouth. Her slow movements send a spark through my groin, I feel the flick of her tongue and the muscles in my thighs tighten.

"Fuck!" I gasp. My craving for her is getting physically painful.

I can't wait any longer so I reach down, pull her back up and roll her over so that I'm half on top of her now. She's not going to do all the work, I need to show her I can pleasure her too. I bring my right leg up and drape it over her hip, squeezing her closer to me and slide myself into her. She feels so soft, so warm as I move in and out of her, it's intoxicating.

I softly kiss her neck just below her ear and her body arches backwards. "Levi," she breathes. I capture her moans with my lips.

"If you only knew how you make me feel Charlotte," I say to her as I move in and out even faster. My legs and arms shaking again when we climax together.

We lay in bed after, her head resting on my chest and my arm around her back. I didn't believe any of this would be possible for me after my accident. With Charlotte, I'm learning anything is possible.

" Everything's going to change now," she says.

" Not everything, but some things," I remind her.

For the first time in a long time , I feel like I can breathe again.